Columbia area/Five Points Crime

<p>I visited USC Columbia last year for my daughter and I loved the school and the campus. I am concerned with the chat boards on other sites complaining about safety in Five Points and that many SC cities are on the top 100 dangerous cities in the USA, including Cloumbia. Can any students comment on just how safe this campus is and are these concerns overblown? it would be a tragedy if this problem caused people not to visit. Can you walk to Wellness Ctr and local areas? thanks so much I need to hear from the actual students, not hype sites......</p>

<p>ok so I’m not an actual student, but I’ve lived in Columbia all my life, and I go down to the Five Points Area a lot, and I visit my friends on campus a lot also. I don’t think Columbia is very dangerous. I’ve been downtown and in Five Points multiple times at night, and I’ve NEVER felt unsafe. Although I would suggest that she go with a large group of friends when she is out at night (this is a good practice anyway). There are usually a lot of people down at Five Points no matter what day of the week it is, which is comforting to me. Five Points has also gotten a lot more strict lately I have heard. The University is trying to make the area a lot better for students. As long as your daughter doesn’t put herself in a dangerous situation I think she is fine!</p>

<p>thanks alot, can you tell me how most students get to five points? do they walk or does USC provide any services there? thank you so much for answering my ?</p>

<p>Since I’m not yet at USC (I’ll be there next year, but I just live close to the University.), I’m not exactly sure how a lot of them get there. It is possible to walk there. Especially depending on the dorm she stays in. Some of my friends take cars there. I’m sorry that I’m not sure, but I can ask some of my friends there and get back to you. Also I’m going to Scholars Day at USC, and I can ask then also! </p>

<p>Also I remember one girl talking about how people wanted to borrow her car to get places, so car borrowing happens a lot apparently in some groups.</p>

<p>thanks so much, any information about safety and getting around to Five Points would be appreciated. I heard they have a shuttle but not sure how long it runs etc… it is a beautiful campus… You have a real jewel there, and I hear a new business school coming… I think USC will become more and more selective with all the improvements being made. Its amazing how much Darla Moore has done for USC and her vision of the new construction benefiting the entire community is so right. Thanks again for being so helpful…</p>

<p>Most people I know who live on campus just walk down there. It’s not that far, and parking there is a pain. You definitely don’t want to be walking back all by yourself at night. Every time I’ve walked to or from there at night, I always make sure to be with other people. There are services like Carolina Cab, which can pick you up. I honestly don’t know the specifics of that program though, because I’ve never used it.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any details about “Scholars Day”???</p>

<p>I live in Columbia and if you look at most incident reports for 5 points (or anywhere near campus for that matter) most of them include the time and mostly these times are after midnight and some very late. My advice to my girls is that nothing good happens after midnight and never go anywhere alone! Not much help for college students that insist on being out late I know. There is some USC free cab thing but I think that ends at 1. I would want my daughter to be in a fairly large group to be walking back from 5 points very late. </p>

<p>The Strom is actually fairly connected to campus, more than it seems on first glance and my daughter goes there often, but again at night in groups. If you look at class scheudles, there are lots of classes going on until 8 or 9 pm, so it has to be pretty late to be walking around the main part of campus and feeling like you’re alone. USC is the same as any school in a downtown area, be where you are suppose to be, use common sense and don’t be wandering around drunk at 2 in the morning!</p>

<p>I appreciate all responses and I gave her the very same advice. I just wanted to hear from people who are closer to the situation, so thank you. Also she likes Chapel-Hill and UNC as well and they have problems too as do all colleges. Some of the best schools in the country are on the top of the crime list (Harvard,MIT,Tufts). She fell in love with USC as I did and I think it has more to offer in many regards than UNC. For one, they offer Accounting and Finance from The Moore School which I believe will move up on the National Ranking with all the money they are putting behind it. UNC does not offer those majors undergrad. I just hope USC puts money into securing the area around campus as well. Thanks again.</p>

<p>I feel pretty safe on campus. There are those blue boxes EVERYWHERE. The school actually requires my major department to discuss safety and transportation options and what-not with us at the beginning of every semester, because it can be pretty late when theater rehearsals performances get out.</p>

<p>Most people walk to Five Points. It isn’t that far.</p>

<p>Really, as long as you have common sense, you’ll be fine.</p>

<p>Thanks… coming in March to take another look… that is a beautiful campus… Do they shuttle students to the baseball and football fields?</p>

<p>Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what is Five Points?</p>

<p>You can take a shuttle to the football games. I don’t think they do to baseball games though, because it’s not far from the center of campus at all. The stadium is just on the other side of Greek Village.</p>

<p>An area off campus where the students go for entertainment and eating facilities…</p>

<p>Thanks, I guess I’ll figure this stuff out once my son gets down there.</p>

<p>5 Points is honestly area right off campus (about a 5 min walk from the Capstone/Columbia dorms) where students go to drink. There’s over a dozen bars, so yes it can get a little dangerous at night but it’s perfectly fine as long as you aren’t walking alone, especially as a girl.</p>

<p>Bikes are very popular and it seems that every building has a bike rack. Honors dorm even has bike storage inside the building.</p>

<p>FYI,</p>

<p>There was a Carolina Alert that went out last night just before midnight. A girl got robbed at gunpoint.</p>

<p>The thing was, she was walking alone on the very end of campus to her house that was off-campus. It was 11:30 at night. Just not a safe thing to do.</p>

<p>I happened to be at the gym, and we ended up waiting on one of our guy friends to walk us back, but they were warning everybody as they were leaving to be careful and not walk back alone.</p>

<p>That’s the only incident that we’ve actually had since I got here in August, which in my opinion, isn’t bad. I mean there are 30,000 students at USC. It’s basically a small city in itself, so things like this are going to happen, but they’re pretty rare.</p>

<p>I’m a parent and I received the Carolina Alert on my cell phone as well.</p>

<p>they should really come down hard on these thugs… Sorry but that isnt common place for most college campuses… its nice to put money into a new business school building but something should be done in Cloumbia about crime… put money there… south carolina as a whole is in the top 3 most dangerous states… thats horrible</p>